Dmitry Bivol avenged his loss to Artur Beterbiev with an inspired showing on Saturday, taking the undisputed light-heavyweight titles in a thriller in Riyadh.
In October, Beterbiev won a narrow, majority decision over Bivol in the same Saudi city, unifying all the belts and handing Bivol his first professional loss. On Saturday, Bivol flipped the script, winning a majority decision against his fellow part-Russian, who had never before been beaten.
Bivol’s victory saw him go one better than in October, when he became the first man to avoid a knockout by power-puncher Beterbiev. While the scorecards in that fight, an intriguing contest, were controversial, Bivol admitted afterwards that he would have to “add more” in a rematch.
And that is what the 34-year-old did.
In their first clash, Bivol took risks, produced fine combinations, and showed solid defence, but he faded in the latter half of the fight. Beterbiev, 40, capitalised on that night, finishing strong to snatch a victory in the eyes of two of the judges. In the rematch, Bivol executed a similar gameplan to his original one, but with greater longevity.
Bivol arguably took the first three rounds of the rematch, before Beterbiev’s usual pressure paid off, bringing him back into the fight and leaving it completely in the balance in the second half. Perhaps this time, however, Beterbiev had peaked too soon, while it was Bivol who was the better boxer down the stretch.
A second wind and sustained spell of success saw Bivol claim victory, although he had to battle through moments of adversity along the way, just as he did in the first fight. While Bivol marked up Beterbiev’s face throughout the rematch, the latter cut Bivol badly in the final moments.
Ultimately, the judges scorecards read 114-114, 116-112, 115-113 in Bivol’s favour. And while Bivol was better this time, so was the fight – a gripping contest from start to finish.
“I’m just so happy, I went through a lot the last years,” said a visibly relieved Bivol. “I lost and I felt a little bit easier: I didn’t feel pressure too much this time like before. I was just wanting to work from the first round to the 12th and hope I did enough. I was better, I pushed myself.
“I was more confident and I was lighter. I wanted to win so much today. I just told myself: ‘He could start from the beginning to destruct me, to disturb me.’ It was hard to keep him at a distance […] then I saw he was also tired. [I told myself:] ‘I have to land more clean punches.’
“I’m ready for any challenge in the future, but I want a rest; I had an injury and I was using anti-inflammation.”
Beterbiev, meanwhile, said: “I don’t want to talk about the decision, just congratulations to Bivol. I think this fight was better than the first fight. We’ll see, but now it’s my time to come back. Actually I [didn’t] want the second fight at all, wasn’t my choice, but we’ll do a third fight.”
In the co-main event, Joseph Parker needed just two rounds to knock out Martin Bakole, who stepped in for IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois, after the Briton fell ill.
On Thursday, Dubois withdrew from his planned defence against Parker, leaving organisers scrambling for a new opponent for the New Zealander. And Bakole, the “most avoided” heavyweight in boxing, stepped in, only for Parker to disregard his reputation and produce an impressive KO.
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